Flowers Mostly...

This summer, I haven't done much in the garden. I have had a stressful year of "the waiting game" and have been unsure of future goals and where life will take me. Due to career changes, my family has been unsure of whether we will remain at our house or if we'd have to move. Of course we will always have this house, because it belongs to my parents, and I will always have my "red dirt garden," but a bitter sweet moment has arrived for my husband and I.

We will most likely be moving in the next couple of months. To where we are still a bit unsure, but where ever my husband is needed, that's where we'll go. So this summer I decided to not get all crazy with my gardening, because I knew that if we had to move, my mom or dad, would not be able to upkeep this awesome space that we had created 3 years ago.

I am very excited for our new life and the adventures it will bring (not the stress and changes). And I am also looking forward to starting a new garden, where ever it is we may end up. I will of course update my blog still, despite my garden not being in "red dirt." I will hopefully update it on how my red dirt garden is doing, if my mom or dad decided to plant some of their own veggies.

But anyway, this summer has been bitter sweet for me. - Getting ready to say goodbye to my garden has been kind of depressing. I guess that's why I haven't done much. For what its worth though, my zinnias and sunflowers were wonderful to watch bloom and grow, and display.

Melon Growing Attempt #2

Well summer has come and I have attempted to grow melons once again. This time I feel I have been a bit more successful, DESPITE my melons still not making it. :(

Why you ask? Well I have basically just experimented once again, this time more seriously, and have come up with better solutions and ideas for successful growing, for next summer. I had started four melon plants and planted them in my garden. Two survived transplant and two slowly died off (which is expected). I then watched them diligently, for bugs and pests, mold and rot. Eventually melons started growing. Slowly at first, and then more started growing once the intial two had grown larger.   

  

My melons did good, and I even made some garlic pest spray to keep away the ants and aphids that normally plague my melons. For this spray, I just boiled some water and a few mashed garlic cloves. While boiling I added a pinch of cayenne pepper powder. Once I let it boil for a few minutes, and the water turned a little yellow, I took the pot off the burner to let my water cool. Then I put it in a recycled bottle. Every two days, in the evening after the sun had stopped shining on my plants, I sprinkled the solution onto the leaves and melons of the plants. I found this successful in keeping away ants and other pests.

I kept this up for a few days, but stopped...because I got lazy (bad choice). Eventually the rain came and this is where my woes began. I know rain attracts bugs and mold. My melons were sitting on the damp earth throughout the entire rainy week. This caused it to rot in several places and allowed ants to have a party.  This is when I decided to build a "hammock" out of panty hose to keep my melons off the ground. I didn't have a trellis for my plants to climb onto, hindering my hammock usage. I had to tie them to my bean poles and hang them from their, since they were growing next to them. But my saving technique was done a little too late.

Lesson learned: USE A TRELLIS always, to allow melon vines to grow onto. USE HAMMOCKS to hold them up, keeping them off of the ground, away from moist soil and bugs. And lastly, spray with garlic-cayenne water to further deter pests.

Potatoes grow in buckets

Over Christmas break I planted a few potatoes in buckets, since they were sprouting plants. I had never done this before, but read online that it's possible to grow your own from store bought potatoes or organic seed potatoes.

I watered them once a day and added soil whenever they plants grew a few inches taller. In March I noticed that the leaves had died off and the branches remains. This was a sign that the spuds were ready. I dumped my buckets out and to my amazement, I had small potatoes!

It felt great to know that this is possible. I am now determined to grow more potatoes. :-)

Growing yams

I recently discovered that some yams from Christmas time had been growing plants on them in my potato basket. I pulled them off carefully and stuck them in a cup of water.

After about three weeks, little roots started sprouting from them! You can imagine my excitement! I grabbed two large pots and filled the bottom with soil. Then I buried my three yam plants into the soil, with the tops sticking up. I pushed the soil down around them to compact it and watered it generously. Through my research I've read that unlike potatoes, yams tend to like more water.

I'm crossing my fingers that they grow well. Just like potatoes, I will add more soil to them as they grow taller.

UPDATE:

So here is an update of how my yams have progressed! 

Again, like with potatoes, I just added more soil to the plants to cover up the leaves/new growth. These grow super fast! I also watered daily to moisten the soil. I will be digging this up soon, and hopefully we'll see some yams!

Growing Roots

My Confederate Rose "tree" blooms great! My problem was, it was potted... And it began to grow roots into the ground next to my house! So impulsiveness took over, and I found myself hacking away at the roots, for fear that eventually the tree would grow huge and start hitting the roof, which it already had begun to do. I managed to get my tree free from the ground and moved it to my yard. I had to trim the roots at the bottom of my pot, for it to stand up. At first, it just flopped over. I dug a shallow hole in the ground to bury my pot, in hopes of it rooting into its new spot. So we'll see.

I am worried that my tree won't take, and just die off. So I am trying to grow new trees from some of the branches. I researched a little online and did two things.

1) cut small slits into the branch at the base. 

2) dip it in honey. I have read from other gardeners that honey is a natural root hormone. Once I did this I filled a jar with some water and put the branches in. I'm crossing my fingers that the roots grow!

I have read that it is fairly easy to grow roots from branches, even with only water. 

So I will remain hopeful. - My dad had brought home a ti leaf tree branch and let it in water, and in a couple weeks, low and behold, roots! I just planted his little "tree" in a pot with soil and fertilizer today. It had a very nice root ball forming. :-)

Staying positive that the trees live and prosper!

Meet my "Kale Tree"

Have you ever seen a kale tree? Well it isn't really a tree. I have been growing my kale for over 6 months. This is what happens when you harvest the leaves and continue to let the stalk grow in the center.

Unfortunately after allowing my kale tree to grow to about 3 feet, I must now "chop" it down. My kale tree has been over taken by aphids. I believe that last week I saw there little green slimy eggs and this week, these ashy black specks, perhaps their poop? I don't know. I read that I could just wash it off and spray my plants with water and a pest solution (homemade), but I don't want to chance eating this kale after all this pest junk has been living on it and eating it.

Well...what do you think?

Paper pot maker

Do you like the jiffy peat pots, but don't like spending money on those refills? I do, and I figured out an alternative that's cheap fun and practical.

Behold, the paper pot maker! I learned about it on instagram, through a fellow gardener that I happened to be following. He made these cute paper pots to grow seeds in using a wooden mold. I looked it up on amazon and found various models ranging from $10 to $20+  and found one that was around $13 that shipped to Hawaii. I got it!

The way it works is, you use half of a piece of newspaper page, ripped into thirds. Take a strip and roll it up around the cylinder post of the pot basket. Food the bottom in like a present and then push it into the bottom of the wood base, twist it around a few times, while pressing firmly down. Slowly pull the new pot you've made off of the cylinder.

I have made over 30 pots with this method in one sitting. Its fun and rewarding. I scoop some soil into them and plant my seeds.